Friday Fictioneers – Revenge is a dish best served cold

ByLinda Parkinson-Hardman

Over the last few weeks I’ve shown a very soft side to my weekly post for Madison Woods Friday Fictioneers challenge and this time I decided to explore my darker side to see if I can actually tap into it. The picture is perfect to do this and I was inspired by something immediately I saw it.

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The bowl of juicy raspberries sat on the kitchen table all night and no-one touched them.

She was surprised as the hordes that invaded her kitchen nightly usually devoured everything within reach to satisfy the munchies that came after the all-night parties and binge-drinking.

Being patient, she knew eventually they would succumb to their aroma. Perhaps her music hadn’t been loud enough to force them from their beds with loud protestations of “someone’s sleeping here y’know”.

Eventually she was satisfied as one by one they dropped like stones into a bucket of water with barely a ripple to mark their passing.

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The idea behind Friday Fictioneers is that you submit a 100 word flash fiction story associated with the picture challenge added the previous Wednesday. You can read the other submisions this week on Madison’s Blog here: http://madison-woods.com/flash-fiction/forbidden-100-words/. There is also a Facebook Page too specially for Friday Fictioneers and you can find it here: http://www.facebook.com/FridayFictioneers.

If you’d like to know the rules then this is the page to visit: http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com/flash-fiction/friday-fictioneers/; and finally, if you’d like to read my previous attempts you can find them all listed here: http://lindaph.co.uk/tag/friday-fictioneers/

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40 Comments

  3. As it happens I do a lot of picked fruit Madison – we have loads of it in our garden and growing wild locally, hopefully I’ll never get to breaking point where I put something in it though LOL 🙂

  7. You were absolutely right Brian – not that I have anything (much) against adult children you understand …. 😉

  8. Ah, well there you go JK – it never does to search for food in someone else’s fridge as you never know what it may contain LOL 🙂

  11. Thanks Raina – Personally I like raspberries plain and whole with no cooking so it’s probably my own preferences coming out 🙂

  12. She definitely murdered them and I think she’s their mother who has finally snapped and thanks for all the questions, makes me think I did a good job 🙂

  13. Thanks Kwadwo, although with Doug’s suggestion I’ve amended it to .’… barely a ripple to mark their passing, what do you think?

  14. Don’t they just get you down – can’t stand noise myself but not sure I’d resort to this tactic to get it to stop 🙂

  15. Of course I’m one of the nice ones Doug and appreciate the suggestions which I have now implemented too. Thanks for the lovely comment too 🙂

  16. Hi Nifti and thanks, I rather liked the title too and hoped it might have the effect of drawing people to it 🙂

  18. Thanks Stacey – I think she was a frustrated and irritated mother who had finally had enough .. unfortunately there wasn’t enough word allowance to mention digging a grave or two 🙂 I shall be along to have a read shortly 🙂

  19. Thanks so much for noticing that mistake which I have finally corrected 🙂 Off to visit you now 🙂

  24. I put pauses in the wrong place when I read your final sentence, ha, but I’m on board now (I thought they were literally dropping into a bucket of water). I love the cold calculated patience of your protagonist, and the mystery of who these people are and why she has to endure their partying is great (if I were to make a very dark guess indeed, I’d say they’re her adult children). However it works, a great story!

    Brian (http://pinionpost.com/2012/06/29/the-tenants/)

  29. My thoughts are going all over the place with questions. Who are they and why do they party all night? Why were they camping out in her house? Did she poison them? Murder them? Etc? Sorry, one can only do so much with 100 words. Well done. I’m on the list.

  33. Too, me a few reads to fully see it. I wasn’t expecting that ending, even though you said you were going dark. Clearly someone has had enough of the lazy party -all-night people

  38. Quite a dark side, my dear! I had the same reading of that last bit, had to read it twice to get the meaning. Now your evil protagonist will get respite from the teenaged hordes!

  39. Nice to see the ol’ witch has moved away from apples. 🙂 A little concerned as to why she seems to have no emotional connection with the hordes that invade her kitchen. Is one of these creatures a relative? Or does she forget to lock the door at night and random strangers enter her abode? I liked the “barely a ripple mourning their passing” although I had to read the sentence twice to catch that the invaders were like stones in a bucket, and not actually dropping into water themselves.

    Mine’ll be around tomorrow if you want to take a look (plowright.wordpress.com).